After the Jump
by Mizar
Summary: This takes place directly after TV ep. 22, where John has gone to the future.
1. Chapter 1

**AFTER THE JUMP ** by Mizar

(This story was tough. Because the logic of the time-line means that the girl John met in the future is not Cameron, she's the human killed by Cameron, the one who Cameron was modeled after. It's the only thing that makes sense. Despite that, I'm making her Cameron in this story)

John felt a massive rush of relief wash over him. Cameron walked up from behind Kyle, with a German Sheppard in tow. Thank God! She was alright, she was here, in...when? He looked at her as knelt down and stroked the dog's head. He tried to keep his expression neutral.

Somewhat amused by this young man saying his name as if it was important, Derek said:

"Kyle, this gentleman wearing your coat is John Connor."

John was looking at Cameron and back to Kyle, his father, his head swimming with the implications of the scene. But he sure didn't know what he was going to say at that point.

"I took the coat, I was naked." John said, slacked-jawed.

"It's OK, kid, clothes are kind of hard to come by around here, no stores are open today."

The group laughed, John kept staring.

"Where did you come from kid, 4th quadrant?"

John didn't want to divulge anything until he could figure out what was going on, what the date was, in fact he really didn't know what to do and he was scared. Scared for himself, but also of his mother, back in 2009.

"I don't know where I came from, exactly. Sometimes I forget what year it is." He thought he said it in a kind of dry, "Yeah we all know what it's like for people these days" kind of voice.

The Japanese guy said sarcastically, "Just in case, it's 2025, June 18th to be exact." He honestly didn't know how kids like this could survive without their heads screwed on.

"Where are your friends, your family?" Kyle Reese asked bluntly.

"I-I don't have any." John responded.

Derek said, "You're in good shape, seem like you're well-fed, that means you're smart. You've evaded the metal really well. Not bad for a scavenger."

John wasn't sure he liked that title, but whatever they wanted to think at the moment was better than him having to talk.

"We better get back, I don't want to be in this sector after dark." Kyle said.

"Yeah, kid come with us, we'll get you some clothes."

John nodded. They started walking, John fell in behind, next to Cameron and the dog.

"My name is Cameron." She spoke to John and offered her hand. John took it, felt the usual rush he got when he touched her. She looked at him, he looked at her, he felt like there was some minute tinge of recognition on her part. He realized he'd been staring into her eyes for too long and broke his gaze.

They trailed back a few yards, standard procedure, never get caught in a group by the terminators, less chance of all being killed.

Kyle noted John kept back, he figured he knew about the strategy or he just wanted to be near the girl. Obviously, he knew more than he was saying.

"My name's John Connor." John smiled. Cameron smiled back. He so longed to have back the Cameron who knew him. He'd only been in this time-line for a few minutes and he felt lonely already. These people were strangers.

"Have you been on your own for a long time?"

Reliable Cameron, always fishing for information, which she usually got, one way or another. John decided to keep it vague and then tangent.

"Pretty long, as long as I care to remember. Where does this...resistance group live?"

"A couple kms from here, we can travel nearly all the way by tunnels."

John looked at the place. Essentially, it was the remains of the city buildings, tunnels not formed by nature like caves, but created when the entire structure of the city was leveled by the nuclear blasts. He'd remembered reading about Hiroshima and Nagasaki and realized that they probably faced more danger from cave-ins and tunnel collapses than from any lingering radiation. He thought about his mother Sarah, back in 2009 and hoped she was OK. Here and there he saw street signs he recognized, and the odd skeleton. He'd seen death back in his time but this placed reminded him of an underground grave. He was grateful for the intermittent shafts of sunlight coming into the ruins.

When they arrived back at their HQ John found out it was several stories below ground. The remains of a deep-dug shopping concourse. The "community" such as it was was divided into several areas formerly stores and offices in the concourse. Who would have wanted to work down here before it was bombed, he thought.

Derek conferred with other commanders and then with Kyle about the day's events, only two men lost, which was pretty decent considering they took out several terminators. Thought the tide was not in their favour, not by a long-shot. Averaged out over the last 30 days, the terminators had the kill edge. They also got John some clothes. Nothing fancy, just shirt, pants, undergarments and a worn-looking grey jacket. He was now wearing running shoes he hadn't worn since he was a kid, but at least they fit.

They ate dinner which consisted primarily of canned food, but shockingly, there was milk available for coffee. Apparently, the gamma radiation released in the blasts had "ultra sterilized the packaged perishables and they hadn't gone bad, even though like the canned goods, they were years old. John remembered reading about a controversy involving this in his time. Scientists had wanted to use gamma radiation for food sterilization in countries were refrigeration and power supplies were bad, because it killed all pathogens in the products, thus ensuring (as long as they were air-tight packaged) that they wouldn't go bad. But various groups opposed the use so food kept spoiling and people kept going hungry. Derek explained that on foraging missions, vitamins got top priority because things like vitamin C and D were almost impossible to come by except in certain packaged foods which were not plentiful enough. But, occasionally, they got fruit picked and transported by very brave people scavenging the untended orchards in the valleys. John had also noticed they appeared to be clean for a group driven underground. He asked Kyle about it, still dazed to realize he was talking to his father.

He felt like hugging him, but then he couldn't. Kyle suggested Cameron show him. Cameron took John for a walk about 300 yards West of their underground centre. They then descended a tunnel about 200 ft and came out into a huge cavern with a lake in it.

"This was exposed by the blasts. It's a natural aquifer."

John was amazed. The ceiling was covered with stalactites and was about 80ft above the water. Near the tunnel exit there were shower stalls. A few were occupied, one person showered, another peddling or pumping a device to provide the water flow. Same thing with long rows of washing machines hooked up to either floor peddle or bicycle-like contraptions. They also had old wringer washers where John assumed clothes would be squeezed to get their water out, then hung to dry.

"We're lucky. A lot better than most groups" Cameron offered.

"I guess.." John was looking at the shower set-ups. Crude, but they were stalls. It occurred to him that building things wouldn't have been too hard, the raw materials were all around them, some much worse for ware.

"How many people live in the complex?" John asked.

Cameron studied him a bit, on the off chance he was a stooge (name given to humans who worked for the machines).

"Around 150." She lied. There were actually 400 or so in the complex, but he didn't need to know that. John had already gauged the number, he knew it was more but didn't say anything.

"The only thing you can't do is swim in the aquifer, we can't risk any kind of pollution. Areas that don't have what ours have have seen outbreaks of disease, even leprosy, from lack of sanitation and the poor hygiene that goes with it. They say a colony of over 4,000 was wiped out by the Plague in Southern Europe."

"Yes," offered John, "As if the machines weren't bad enough." She nodded.

He took the opportunity to wash up, Cameron peddled.

When they got back, Derek suggested they get some sleep, it was 10:00pm and they had to get up at dawn to go on a scavenge. That's what they did, most of their time was spent scavenging and fighting the machines.

Derek brought John to an area adjacent the complex, it was a warren of what used to be small stores. The stores floor spaces were divided up into a complex of sleeping quarters, none of which were particularly private. Derek showed John to the back of one of the stores, and let him into an office. Inside was an actual bed, nightstand, the old desk from the original office and a closet.

"This is an officer's quarters, specifically, a woman officer, but she was killed a week back. I'll bet it seems like heaven compared to how you've slept?" John nodded, noting the bed was just a mattress on the floor.

"I'll wake you before dawn, we all work here, the quality of the accommodations are determined by need and work effort. Women, children get first choices, men second. If someone distinguishes themselves in the fight or by some other means, they get better choices. You don't make officer unless you distinguish yourself and show you can lead."

"I understand."

"Goodnight, see you in the morning."

"Derek?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

Derek smiled, "You're welcome."

John's mind was a million questions and his anxiety was high. He didn't know what to do, where to begin.

"I'm going to stay with John tonight," announced Cameron.

Derek and Kyle had been studying a map of another area they had to go into in the morning. They both looked at Cameron and Kyle asked, "Why?"

"He's lonely, he is anxious, humans that suffer from those things too long become neurotic, even psychotic. He needs company.

"I don't think someone whose been living that way for who knows how long is going to crack-up now." Kyle looked at her.

"You don't know what his state of mind is, he could be a threat or could turn into one. I should monitor him"

Kyle looked at Derek. Derek said to go ahead.

John had settled down on the bed, on his back with his forearm over his eyes. He wasn't tired, how could he just sleep after what had happened. His mother was 16 years behind him. He was terrified for her. He sure as Hell didn't feel like a leader right now. Then he heard a knock at the office door.

He started, jumping up as Cameron opened the door and walked in.

"Am I disturbing you?" She asked.

"N-no, what is it?

"I'm going to spend the night with you." Cameron shut the door.

"You are?" John was confused.

"You've been alone, it's not good for you to keep being alone."

"Uh, OK, if you like, I don't have any..." He was wondering where she'd sleep, or he'd sleep, there was only the mattress.

"We can both be in the bed." Cameron began stripping off her clothes. She continued until she was down to her underwear and her white t-shirt, no bra. The room was lit with just a Coleman lamp and its light played off her smooth body.

John was thinking quickly, "Is this some kind of custom they've developed in the last few years?!" He thought.

She lay down on the right side of the bed, facing the left. She looked at him to see if he was coming in.

He removed his shirt and his pants, kept his underwear on. He got onto the mattress. She propped her head up on her hand, he had turned on his left side to face her. She looked at him. The temperature in the underground was cool, around 66 deg. F.

His mouth was dry, he wasn't sure what to say.

"Do you want to touch me?" Cameron said in a matter-of-fact manner.

"Touch you?" John was very confused and excited. Is this supposed to help me sleep? He though incredulously.

"I sense you need to be calmer then you'll be able to sleep. I want you to be calm."

John half-laughed, then said:

"You want me to be calm, uh, are you...?" (He wanted to say, "joking.")

"If I'm making you nervous, I can go and leave you alone?" Cameron offered.

"No! Uh, no, not at all." John stammered. He did not want that.

"Do you sleep on your right side?" She asked.

"Yes." Cameron would have known that in his time.

"Ok, turn over then."

He complied.

Then John got a shock, an entirely pleasant one. She molded her body to his, her front to his back. He could feel her breasts on his back, and she draped her arm over his, resting her hand on his shoulder. She was warm against him. His head swam. He longed to be with her, say on a secluded beach, in a safe world where he could concentrate solely on her.

"Is this alright for you?" Cameron asked.

Oh yes, beyond "alright." Thought John. This was something he'd wanted to feel in his time-line.

"Yes, it's great." He said.

"Good night, John" she said softly.

"Good night, Cameron."

John didn't think he could go to sleep. He was too excited. But he was also content, at least for now and so he slept.

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

**After the Jump Part 2 by Mizar**

* * *

"You'll get him killed." Derek said with finality. Derek and Kyle were unit commanders and owing to the danger of too high a frequency of communications, they were empowered to make decisions on basic deployment of their units. They could direct them individually, or fuse them for larger expeditions.

"There is no "learning curve" Derek. You pick up a gun, you learn the rudiments and you go to work. You fight the metal." Kyle responded. In-truth, both of them knew any 16 year old who had been able to survive, apparently on his own, had something going for himself. He'd likely be one of the luckier ones and last for a few more months than average grunt did.

"We aren't sending him out into open ground until he's had some time to train." Derek shot back.

Kyle considered this. Derek and he were sometimes at odds, but they respected each other's opinion and generally gave it careful consideration.

Kyle relented somewhat, then had a thought.

"How about the cave reconnaissance?"

Derek considered this. For months they'd wanted to explore the cave that contained the aquifer. They knew from echo-location soundings that the cave was at least 15 miles long. They had no idea how many passages there were, what other than the aquifer was in it, if it was even worth exploring, but Kyle and the commanders have surmised that it could be a strong asset as a fabrication complex for weapons for their fight, one they might possibly keep from the metal for some time. Bombed-out buildings, no matter how labyrinthine, never stayed secret very long and they were not very defendable. But the problem was, they'd had no one to spare for such an excursion. Until now.

"That makes sense. Whatever he comes up against in their won't be as bad as metal."

"We'll send him with Cameron." Derek said.

"What? Why?" Kyle asked.

"In the first place, we don't know how far back that thing really goes. In the second, we don't even know if he can navigate by himself in there. She can. In the third place, it might take some time and he won't be able to haul enough gear,. Etc."

"Why not just send one of the others?" They did have a dozen reprogs working with them. It was a relatively simply process. You ambushed a lone metal, immobilized it with a big zap of electricity. Pull out its chip and reprogram it. It had taken the scientists 10 months to figure out how to do that. They'd ended up with a lot of scrap terminators.

"Because for some reason, I trust her more than the others." Derek stated. Kyle nodded.

They talked to John later that day, he'd slept for about 10 hours, which they attributed to exhaustion.

"So you're good with this?" Kyle asked John. It didn't sound like a question.

"Yeah, sure. I'll help any way I can." John offered.

"Good, I'll brief Cameron, you can leave in a couple hours. The aquifer is like a river, probably stretches as deep the the tunnels, which means you'll have water, but we'll provide canteens anyway. Now here's the way we work. This is a recon, not a combat mission. If you find metal, you are not to engage them unless you have to and if you do, our whole complex is compromised. So avoid them."

"Yes."

"Have you ever fired a weapon?"

"Yes."

"What kind?"

John reeled off a list of various civilian and military weapons.

Kyle was impressed and hoped it was empty bragging, but he didn't get that feeling from this one. Some hotshots did brag, they lied, then they just died.

Derek spoke to Cameron apart from John and Kyle.

"So you understand, no matter what, the primary objective is to get back here with the recon intel?" Derek looked at her.

"Yes, I understand, no matter what." She was the only reprog they had that you didn't need to explain the "fine print" to. Derek often wondered how this was possible, he thought she must be an enhancement of some kind. This was worrisome, especially if it was (and it would be) applied to infiltrator units.

"Ok!" He felt pretty good about this mission, if only because they were unlikely to run into the usual phalanx of killer machines. They should all be so lucky on their missions.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go alone, it seems like a better choice?" Cameron asked.

"It's not about just the efficiency of the mission. He's new and he has to be involved, but not too involved. You know the psychological effects that can take hold." Derek was referring to a particularly depression that settled over those not capable of contributing to the fight against the machines. The injured, sick, old, and such. They often felt like they weren't pulling their weight.

Cameron nodded.

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They were ready and off within two hours, they each carried a pack, weapons, a kind of hybrid rifle that fired explosive tipped shells, just enough to cripple a terminator if you hit them in the right place, food (for John), some water and ultra-high efficiency flashlights that Cameron could recharge with a small generator. Cameron's mind would store the route as a map. Her pack also weighed 100lbs, John's about 30. Irrationally, he felt guilty about that.

John had traded in his running shoes for hiking boots, which still had a faint trace of blood from the soldier who'd been killed wearing them. They didn't waste much. Cameron and he both had on khaki uniforms. Even with such asexual cloths, her form was noticeable to him, it had molded itself to him last night. He shook his head. How could he avoid thinking about it, especially since she was "on point?" He thought about his mother and hoped she was better off without him in-tow. He missed "his" Cameron. The one who seemed to enjoy their eccentric conversations. He liked trying to teach her about human conventions, mannerisms. He knew she was a machine, but he'd always felt kind of sorry for her machine-borne awkwardness around people.

Once, when in school, one of the other students had called her a robot. She'd looked at him uncomprehendingly and did nothing, it was John who'd decked the guy. He was looking out for his "sister."

They trudged on, the cave had narrowed slightly but was still huge and thankfully, they were able to follow a kind of path, the bed of a now dried-up tributary of the aquifer that ran adjacent to the main water body. John had tried to make small-talk, but Cameron had seemed less talkative than usual. But he'd momentarily forgotten this wasn't "his" Cameron, this was "their" Cameron.

They'd been traveling for about 3 hours. Then Cameron noticed something. She pointed to the walls and the ceiling of the cave. There were no more bats this far in, which was good because rabies was a definite turn-off in a post-apocalyptic society. But what Cameron had pointed to where the walls and the roof. They glowed. They were covered with bio-luminescent algae. They decided to stop to let John rest a bit. John sat on a rock and had some water, Cameron stood nearby.

"Look!" Cameron turned off her flashlight. John could still see her. He turned off his own. They were bathed in an even, bluish light, though the illumination level was almost too low to see any kind of colour. Cameron of course could see in a wide spectral range from near IR to UV, but John's eyes had adapted to the dark pretty well. He could see Cameron as just a bit more than a silhouette. She saw him looking at her.

"John, is something wrong?" She asked.

"No, just making sure I can still see you."

She walked over to him, and sat on the other half of the long boulder he was sitting on.

"Better?" She asked and looked at him, her face about a foot from his. Even though she didn't have his Cameron's experience, she had some of her mannerisms, coming within one's "sphere" was one of them. He didn't complain. That used to make him nervous.

"Yes." He looked into her eyes. She held his gaze. He felt dizzy. Must be the darkness effecting his balance?

Then she swiveled around and said, "This is interesting. They emit light, but use very little energy. They convert it from nutrients derived from the rock, which is leeched out by water.

When she turned quickly around, she generated a slight breeze. He smelled something, sweet like...perfume?"

"Cameron, are you...?"

"Yes?"

He looked at her again. Then decided against saying anything.

"No, nothing."

She regarded him, able to see well enough to detect a darkening of his facial skin. Was he blushing?

"We should get going." He said and stood up.

She stood up as well. They continued on.

After another 3 hours, John was getting a bit tired, the ground was still relatively flat, but he was hungry too. Cameron took note of a slight drop in his speed.

"We should stop for now, "camp" here." She offered.

He considered it.

"I can keep going."

"The ground is getting less flat, your speed has dropped, there's greater chance for a mishap." She remembered what she'd be instructed to do, the rules for this mission and she didn't want John to become a liability she couldn't by orders incur.

"I'm not crippled, you know."

She looked at him. She was in-charge. He half-smiled. This stubbornness, if that term can be applied to a machine reminded him of his Cameron. Another similar personality characteristic. He still missed her. He felt anger toward John-Henry. Not for being the killer terminator formerly known as "Cromartie," but for screwing up the time-line and costing him his Cameron.

He thought, "Enough with the self-pity John."

"You're the boss." He shrugged.

They camped. Cameron made a fire using dead and very old wood they found near the shore of the aquifer. It must have come from somewhere further down and it also meant something fed the aquifer or had fed it at one time. It burned well, being completely dried-out. It was convenient because they didn't need to use the Coleman-style stove or its fuel. The fire also gave off heat, which the cookstove wouldn't provide much of. The cave temperature was about 16 deg. C, not cold, cold, but cool. Cameron made up one of the freeze-dried military meals. It was high in calories, and actually not bad in the taste dept. Cameron had been a more adept cook back home than mom was, he mused.

He was more tired than he'd realized and though he wanted to do some more walking, Cameron said they'd sleep for 5 hours and start again. He agreed. She pulled the bedroll out of the bottom of the backpack and unwound it. She went to lay it out and he realized there were two of those 1" thick high-density foam sheets. She laid them side by side.

Now he felt anxious.

Cameron inflated a couple of air pillows. John thought it was kind of an extravagance and for some reason, it reminded him vaguely of something. Hadn't he told her once he couldn't sleep on a bed without a pillow?

She motioned to him to lay down on the now made-up camp bed. He complied. Then she lay down next to him and was attempting to snuggle in as she had the night before. He sat up and looked at her.

"Cameron, I don't think we should sleep...like we, I (terminators don't sleep) did the other night " He looked at her face. She looked back.

"You don't need to?" She asked.

Need or want? He thought.

"No, ah, I appreciate it, it helped, definitely, but I think we should keep apart for now." He hated trying to affect a "practical" attitude with her, even though she didn't really know him. His Cameron would have understood his nuance.

"It's just a bit...distracting." He finished. He thought he detected something in her facial expression at that moment.

"Oh, OK. I understand." She nodded almost imperceptibly and gave a kind of half smile as if to reinforce her understand of what he'd said.

She got up and proceeded to shift the bedroll away from his. He stood up and hurriedly said:

"No, I didn't mean you had to move the bed away from mine..."

"It's fine, everything is good. I don't want to do anything that might disrupt the mission."

"You aren't, it isn't...." He stumbled.

"I'm just going to do a perimeter sweep, I'll be back." She headed off into the dark, not needing the flashlight.

He watched her go and felt like s---. But why? And wait a sec, they don't have a perimeter anyway, they're following a linear path along side the aquifer. He was getting confused.

He'd had enough, he was lonely and he was flummoxed by this terminator. He lay back, then more calmly rationalized that she'd done nothing out of character, she'd acted as a terminator reprogrammed to work with humans. That was all...there was nothing else.

He couldn't any sound at all. This place was dead-quiet. Intermittently, on the trial, he'd heard what sounded like a ball being dropped then bouncing in shorter and shorter heights, increasing bounce frequency as each one got shorter. What he was hearing was the blood rushing in his ears which is what you hear when in a very quiet environment.

Then he did hear something. Faint, a kind of breath intake and outtake, almost a panting. He sat up. "Cameron?" No answer. He stood up and snapped on a flashlight. He tried to isolate where the sound was. High-pitched sounds are more easily pin-pointed than low-pitch. He figured he'd just walk forward, see if it got louder, then keep going in that direction. Luckily, it did. He played the flashlight around up ahead, he could see large rocks strewn about the wide path they were using, no sign of Cameron. He was getting worried. He called out again, louder.

He walked about 40 yards, and heard the sound coming from just up ahead. He went around a particularly large slab of rock and there was Cameron, her back to him. Her shoulders were heaving.

"Cameron?"

The sound stopped, she stood still but didn't turn around. He walked around and faced her. She looked at him, tears streaming down her face. She quickly wiped them away with a swipe of her jacket-sleeve. All he could think of was, "What in the Hell is going on?" Had he hurt her feelings? What feelings?! But she didn't look hurt, she looked scared. He looked deeper into her eyes, searching for something, then his eyes went wide.

"John"- she sobbed softly.

It hit him like a jolt of electricity! Cameron! HIS Cameron! He grabbed her arms, ecstatic over his discovery, but freaked-out by it all. What had happened? Tears?!

"Cameron!" He exclaimed.

"Yes" She said and nodded.

"Oh my God!" He wrapped her in his arms, and she put hers around his back. He held on to her like she'd disappear the moment he let go. "You're back, or here, rather."

"I'm so sorry John, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She was still wracked with sobs.

"Shhhh." He said, stroking her back, unwilling to let her go just yet. He felt good for the first time since coming to this time-line. She calmed down. He half-released her and moved back, reluctantly.

"Cam, what happened? He needed answers. "Lets go back." He took her by the hand and lead her back to the campsite. He pulled her bedroll back to his, then they lay down, facing each other. She had regained her composure.

"When I went through in John-Henry's body, I did it so his knowledge could go through as well. He has knowledge that may help stop the war. I didn't want to do that to you John."

She looked at him. He nodded. She continued.

"He couldn't go through himself, being tied to the complex. But he could go through provided my chip was used.

You're probably wondering why I was crying?" She said it as to indicate the obviousness of the question before them.

"Yeah..." Was all he could muster.

"Six months before we jumped, something began to happen. I started to experience things. I started feeling...emotions."

John was astonished. Nothing he or his mother had noticed indicated anything like it had ever happened. He'd had no idea, at least on a conscious level. He felt ashamed about it.

"I didn't know what was happening. I thought it might have been a malfunction of some kind. I think the first time I noticed it was when you hooked up with Riley. I didn't like it. I convinced myself that it was because she was a threat to the mission, but it was conflicting to me."

John didn't know where this was going.

"We have our chip, that's our processor, the thing that thinks, calculates, and such. But our neural net is where our memories are held, in our heads and they evolve."

"I came though as John-Henry to meet with the humans and the terminators, to act as liaison between them to try to forge some kind of truce. But Derek and his men caught me, they thought I was just another metal soldier coming after them. They analyzed my chip and realized that it didn't originate in John-Henry's...structure. Then my body came through. They found it near the place where John-Henry appeared."

"How?" Said John, truly confused at this point.

"I don't know. It's possible your mother sent it through. Maybe to allow it to be re-united with my chip."

"Which happened?!" John was incredulous.

"Yes, the scientists surmised what the situation was, put my chip back in my head. It took me a month to recover from that battle I had prior to jumping."

"I'm sorry." John said, remembering the damage to her. He remembered being terrified at the time that she might not be repairable. He was overjoyed she was back to him, no matter what the circumstances.

She smiled at him. He was still taken aback by all this.

"They didn't believe him. John-Henry. They put a damaged terminator's chip in him, reprogrammed, and it linked with his memory. He explained his mission but the commanders said it was too risky to go on his word alone, it could be a massive plot. I tried telling them it was on the level, they didn't believe me. Then, John-Henry escaped a couple weeks back, we haven't seen him since."

"That probably didn't help matters, did it?" John asked.

"No."

John thought about it. "Did you see Weaver?"

"No." Said Cameron, looking him questioningly.

"I never saw her when we...landed."

"You came through with her?"

"Yeah, but she was gone when I got here. Mom stayed back."

"I know, it makes sense, otherwise I wouldn't have shown up here."

They sat in silence for a bit, still a million questions going through both of them.

"Tell me about the emotions." John said.

"Do you remember when I went bad?"

"Yes." John thought back to that awful time, when she'd almost been destroyed.

"What I said to you when I was pinned between the trucks...I think I meant it."

He was shocked.

"I had reverted, I wanted to kill you, just like I was programmed to. Part of me said what I did so you'd think I was fixed and let me go and I could kill you."

"Thanks" He said dryly. She liked his sense of humour.

She smiled at him. He let her continue. But part of me felt it. "It was spontaneous, it just came out. It was confusing, I wanted to terminate you, but I was terrified of not seeing you again. I'd never felt anything before."

"When I was back, I tried to figure out what was happening to me. It wasn't until I got here that I found out that certain terminators began to develop emotions. Derek explained it to me. Some got even nastier than their programming would let them, actually enjoying the killing, others abandoned their mission and were destroyed by the other terminators. Some were recruited by humans to fight along with the ones humans reprogrammed."

"So why does this happen?"

"No one knows, at least on the human side. The scientists can't figure it out. I spent the last six months trying to understand it myself, learning to suppress what I felt to prevent the distraction, for the good of the mission..."

John looked at her and sat up. She sat up. He put his hand on her cheek.

"Tell me what you feel now."

"I love with you John. I've been in love with you since that time." She looked at him expectantly.

He absorbed this. Half of him wonderfully happy at this news, the other half furious for having wasted so much time.

He swallowed. His throat was tight.

"Well, I've got you beat, I've been in love with you since we first met."

She smiled at him.

He pulled her to him, she didn't resist, and he kissed her more deeply than he'd ever kissed anyone. She returned the kiss, more so, and they ended up making love on the camp bed. For a few hours, he didn't think about terminators, missions, Derek, Kyle or the lot. He just wanted to revel in being with her; Finally. A bit later, she kissed him to sleep, telling him despite everything, she was still his protector, and more seriously, that they had to get out of there and back to their own time-line. He agreed, but told her not for another few hours and smiled as he nodded off.

* * *


End file.
